By John Ikani
The Federal Government of Nigeria has obtained $700 million loan from the World Bank for specific water projects in the country.
This was made known by the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, while speaking at the 1st Rewards and Recognition Awards Ceremony organised by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, in Abuja, Tuesday.
According to him, the $700m loan would be used to finance the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene projects for five years in Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina, and Plateau States.
Adamu who noted that most of the problems associated with water supply in the country are the responsibilities of state governments, explained that the Federal Government’s job in the area of water supply was to provide support for states.
“We are just trying hard to support them (states). All the incentives like P-WASH (Plan – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Action Plan, declaration of state of emergency by the president are efforts and many more are efforts by the Federal Government to push the states to invest more in water.
“The people are not in the Federal Government. They are in the states. The states are primarily responsible for providing water for the people. If they don’t invest, what can we do? We have drawn the policies, we have done so many things. We are the first to even put a budget line to support state governments for water supply,” he said.
The Minister also expressed optimism that the Water Resources Bill would be passed by the National Assembly and given the Presidential nod to become law in January 2022.
“It will be passed in 2022. At this point, the budget is the most important thing. The national assembly is already engrossed in dealing with the 2022 budget. I can assure you that after the budget, their attention will go back to it and we hope that it will be passed in 2022,” the Minister stated.
He noted that the implementation of the Rewards and Recognition Policy in the ministry showed deliberate efforts in providing the necessary motivation and incentives to inspire Civil Servants to put in their best.
According to him, the system is a recognition that employees have other intrinsic needs other than monetary needs alone.
“The intrinsic need for recognition encouragement, and reward of outstanding performance forms the other pillar on which the rewards policy stands. We need to appreciate those that have helped us. A motivated workforce is an efficient workforce”, he stated.
